Source: YON – Yonhap News Agency of Korea
Publication Date: 14-DEC-07

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) – South Korea will team up with Indonesia to develop and produce a wheeled armored combat vehicle in yet another sign of growing ties between the two nations in the defense industry, Seoul’s arms trade agency said Thursday. “The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the partnership Thursday afternoon in Seoul,” the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. “It has paved the way for the export of technology through the first-ever joint development abroad of the 6×6 wheeled armored vehicle.” Kim Jeong-rok, vice president of South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, and Adik Avianto Soedarsono, president of Indonesia’s PT.PINDAD, signed the MOU, that was also signed by senior officials from the DAPA and the Indonesian Defense Ministry. The MOU is the fruit of the summit declaration on “strategic partnership relations” and an agreement on boosting defense industry exchanges via technology transfer when President Roh Moo-hyun visited Indonesia last year.

Jakarta has emerged as Seoul’s key arms trade partner. South Korea sold seven KT-1 Woongbee basic trainer jets and spare parts to Indonesia in April 2003. In 2006, Indonesia purchased 12 more KT-1s. Jakarta is also a potential buyer of South Korea’s submarines.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)

Indonesia S. Korea joint-armored-vehicles